Natural Capital Inventory by RWS

28 March 2018

The Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is in a position to strengthen natural capital in the Netherlands. They have the ingredients, for example the 14,000 hectares of green verge along the roads that form an essential network for the spread of flowers and insects. They also have the areas next to the roads, the waterways (including shore areas), artworks and resource use.

Inventory

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management would like to make the RWS contribution to the national and European ambitions in the area of natural capital more visible. One of the Ministry’s goals makes this clear, that the: RWS describes the number and content of projects in which the functions of natural capital can better be used in its sustainability report.

As the first step in realizing this milestone, CREM has made an inventory, based on 22 interviews, looking for possibilities for steering and reporting on natural capital.

Results

Obviously, a full report on the various relationships between RWS projects and natural capital will take some time. The inventory, however, shows that there are enough concrete starting points to be able to begin to report on this theme. There are actually already quite a number of relevant RWS activities taking place, even if they are not now happening under the title of natural capital. The observations and results – building blocks and challenges – have been summarized and processed into suggestions for a reporting approach for 2017 and beyond.